Court officials in Baghdad say Saddam Hussein's refusal to attend is delaying today's (Wednesday's) public hearing in the trial of the former Iraqi dictator and his seven co-defendants.
Iraqi police say gunmen have raided a hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk and freed a wounded man, who was detained for plotting to kill a judge involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein.
The United States is rejecting North Korea's demands to lift economic sanctions as a condition for resuming the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says U.S. personnel will not employ cruel or harsh methods when interrogating terror suspects.
A senior Thai minister says the United States has neither operated a secret jail in Thailand for terror suspects nor used the country as a transfer point for such suspects.
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